The View From Here

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

My perfect teeth can suck it

I believe I mentioned how contented I was with life on my birthday; at least I think I did. Everything was going well I loved life, great job, good health, ect. I had been suffering from, what I assumed was one of my semi-frequent sinus infections and, having gone to the doctor, was given antibiotics to treat it. After two weeks my doctor gave me a second round of antibiotics because, even though there was no mucus, my sinus pain and pressure was still there. By the time that ran out, I was at the Jersey Shore where I would go through bouts of pain- sometimes in the cheek, other times in the jaw, and once a raging headache. Migraine medicine didn't help, sudafed either, and very little relief came from nasal spray.

Clearly this wasn't simply caused by a sinus infection and being a hypocondriac I considered my other options. Cancer, luckily was ruled out by the clean blood test results from my recent physical but what about noncancerous growths of the sinuses or brain. Or it could always be a wisdom tooth.

My whole life I have had flawless teeth, not so much as a cavity in a baby tooth, but it seemed possible and the dentist was the cheapest and most logical first specialist to attempt so last Friday I went to see him hoping that my wonderful teeth would have betrayed me and I would have an answer. With initial X-rays there was no sign of trouble and after a physical exam of my mouth the dentist still found nothing explaining that my perfect teeth should not lead to this pain. I began to panic and he explain that it could be a host of things including something pressing on the other end of the nerves (you know like a brain tumor!) or something curable by an ENT. However, since his 360 scan X-ray could show nostril and sinus passages he could see mucus if somehow an infection had managed to survive so long, he decided to do one.

Only after looking at the results of the 360 did he discover there was indeed an impacted wisdom tooth on the left side. He said that in his 4 decade career he'd never seen an impacted wisdom tooth that didn't at least show a bump in the jaw line or gum until he saw mine. My stupid tooth, following the formula of the rest of my teeth, must have lodged into my jaw perfectly. If this had been twenty years ago, I probably would have never found out it could have been the culprit. Yeah that's right could have because the scan also showed that I have sinus polyps on both sides. However since 1- there has been jaw pain 2- people on the internet often talk of lingering sinus trouble being solved by an extraction and 3- the polyps are on both sides but the pain is only on the left I decided to go for the extraction and today I did just that. I was given laughing gas and the actual procedure was very calm (although everybody I love has been trying to keep me calm which inadvertently was worrying me) and I felt so good afterwards, that I went and got my ears pierced. Now, however, the gas and other numbing agents have faded and there was about an hour where it felt like I gave birth through the mouth!!

The dentist says he hopes that this cures everything but that we can't be sure if I'll need the ENT visit or not. Let's all hope NOT I hate spending money and despise pain and worrying.

Ryan Star STAY AWHILE

One of my favorite singers (and for that matter New Yorkers) has finally released new music!

The song has been performed for a while but now you can finally download it http://smarturl.it/iStayAwhile

To Go along with his new single there is a NEW RECORD DEAL!! FROM RSTAR.NET

(August 7, 2012 – New York, NY) Prolific songwriter, video trendsetter, and native New Yorker, Ryan Star has been signed to Island Records, a division of Island Def Jam Music Group, it was announced today by Steve Bartels, President & COO, Island Def Jam Music Group. > > Ryan Star’s first Island Records single, “Stay Awhile,”inside the Top 30 this week on the Hot AC radio chart, has logged over 1.1 million YouTube views to date, after causing a stir at theMTV.com Buzzworthy, VH1.com, and the AOL.com Music home page. “Stay Awhile,” available on iTunes and all digital retailers August 14th, is the first single from Ryan’s upcoming new album on Island Records, details to be announced soon. Meanwhile, to check out the video and all things Ryan, please go to:http://www.youtube.com/rstar or view Ryan’s sizzle reel at http://vimeo.com/41748674. > > Ryan will make his late night television debut on NBC’s The Tonight Show with Jay Leno next Tuesday, August 14thperforming “Stay Awhile”. > > He’s earned licensing deals across a broad range of television programming. Ryan’s song “Brand New Day” was used as the main theme of FOX’s television show Lie To Me, and went on to win a BMI Television Award in 2009. Other sync licenses include shows like American Idol, The Biggest Loser, So You Think You Can Dance, The Amazing Race and Vampire Diaries. In addition Ryan has received key song placements on HBO, NBC, ESPN, NFL Network, The History Channel and more. > > Ryan has been on the road in support of “Stay Awhile”. Recently opening for Andy Grammer, Ryan has previously toured with Bon Jovi, Train, The Script and Rob Thomas.

Please Support real Musicians

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Headlines from the Gothem newspapers

If you saw The Dark Knight Rises you probably wondered how the news was being covered. I certainly was.
Website I stole this from

Friday, August 10, 2012

Crazy Commute

There was a wacko on the subway- I know shocking. But seriously, this one was creepy. He started out like any number of other nut cases I've encountered in my comings and goings; just kind of miserably mumbling to himself. Would I have preferred he not be in my car, sure but he wasn't sitting right next to me and he wasn't trying to interact with me so it was okay.
Then, however we hit train traffic and his angry mumbling got more obnoxious. He said how he could get the place moving again by pulling the emergency call lever and while we did move shortly after, I'm pretty sure that was coincidence as there is always a several minute delay there. Then he started talking about all this crazy stuff like Nazis leading to the trains having the "emergency only" speeds over 100 mph- on and on he went with his insanity and I mouthed to Lauren how I was getting off if he wasn't. He didn't so we did just that. Lauren took it a step further and told the police to investigate him at the next station. He had a large backpack and it is better to be safe than sorry. It was kind of funny that the police were going to brush it off until we said he was white because apparently, white girls feeling unsafe because of a white man seems very dangerous.
This was the right course of action but it did lead to the 4 train being stalled and us half way to our transfer station. Because of this, we had to walk 2 blocks (in not exactly the best neighborhood but rather safe at 8:30am) to catch a cross town bus, and walk to the blue line which gets us within three blocks of work.
Not exactly the most time efficient way to get there, not to mention it costs a bit more. Needless to say we value our lives over 5 dollars and being on time and are bosses are sweet and understanding to also choose our safety over fifteen minutes and $5. That sounds stupid to say but not everyone would be so okay with our occasional dramatic tardiness and we know we are luck!
Once again, we were good humored about it because, honesty sometimes you just have to laugh. You can't take life too seriously; the rest of the day was tons of fun (playing in the rain, spending some time with Gigi and Thomas' grandfather who's visiting, ect) and if we'd let the morning get to us, the day might have been ruined.